Hamza Shaikh has revealed the “unbelievable” experience of captaining his country for the first time following the first Men’s Youth Test against Sri Lanka Men U19s at Wormsley.
While rain prevented a result the 19-year-old Warwickshire batter had a week he will never forget with the Young Lions.
“It’s been unbelievable,” he said. “Playing in the team is one thing but then being the captain of an England team is something else out of this world. It’s such a great honour and to be proud of.
“It gives me confidence personally and I love to be in control of the game and thinking through situations out in the middle.”
Shaikh, who has captained Warwickshire’s Second XI previously, said the experience was made even more valuable by the likes of an all-star England Men U19s backroom staff led by head coach Mike Yardy and including Andrew Flintoff, Graeme Swann and Mushtaq Ahmed.
“Having those sorts of legends of the game around, with all their experience, has been unbelievable,” Shaikh said.
“It’s been great to be able to work with them and we had Freddie (Flintoff) down here as well for the first three days. They’re all so easy to get along with and they’re great with all the players. We have a young team so it is a great experience for all of us to come into this environment.”
The second Men’s Youth Test starts in Cheltenham next Tuesday and Shaikh said that while his young team had to take lessons from this week’s match, they would employ a positive mindset as they go about trying to win the series.
“We are always looking to how we can win the game,” he said. “It’s something we have spoken about and the lads were thinking like that. I would always rather have that as a mindset.
“We don’t look too far ahead, we’ll work session by session. It would have been easy to come into today thinking it will just be a draw but four-day cricket can change in a session and you can turn a game quickly no matter how long is left.
“Sri Lanka showed they are a good team and we have to show up and be ready in Cheltenham. There are a lot of lessons that we will take away from this game.
“On a flat pitch you have to show a bit of control with the ball and with the bat you have to cash in and score big partnerships and runs. We are a young team and there were a lot of positives we will take into next week.”
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